322 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



east coast in February, 1870 ; in Norfolk alone at least 

 sixty individuals are known to have been killed, of which 

 the larger portion were shot between the 12th and 14th, 

 and probably there were many others which were not 

 recorded. Mr. Stevenson gave an interesting account 

 of this event in the " Transactions of the Norfolk and 

 Norwich Naturalists' Society " for that year, pp. 65-70. 

 A remarkable feature in this visitation was the large 

 proportion of adults ; out of thirty-five examined 

 by Mr. Stevenson twenty-nine were fully adult, and only 

 six immature, and the sex of those examined showed 

 the females to present "about the same proportion in 

 numbers to the males, as the young to the old." 



LAEUS RIDIBUNDUS, Linnams. 

 BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



In treating of this species, which has suffered so 

 severely in Norfolk from the combined effects of drainage 

 and in closure, I think, with the example of the black 

 tern before us, which has been allowed to pass away as 

 a breeding species almost unheeded, it is most desirable 

 to place on record, so far as possible, before it is quite 

 too late to do so, such facts as are still known with re- 

 gard to its former breeding-places, and I hope I shall 

 be forgiven if I enter into this branch of the subject as 

 fully as the scanty material at my command will permit. 



At a time when the fens were undrained, and vast 

 tracts of heath extended for many miles in unbroken 

 solitude in various parts of the county, there are known 

 to have been several breeding-places of these birds 

 which have entirely disappeared, and probably there 

 were others, of the former existence of which we have 

 now no knowledge. To Sir Thomas Browne, whose 

 letters form so rich a source of information as to the 

 past, we are as usual indebted, but I am not aware 

 that there is any published reference to be found to 

 some of the breeding-places of which I shall have to 

 speak. 



